How is progress propelled by fear in Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game'?

Answer 1

Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' displays that progress is propelled by fear. Progress is propelled by fear through apocalypse, losing a sense of humanity and the fear of failure and disappointment. This progress is seen through developing technology, a more able Ender as commander and convincing victories.

The people's fear of the alien threat, 'the buggers' and the subsequent fear of 'annihilation' advances them to develop their own technology to defend themselves against annihilation. "The buggers damn near wiped us out last time. They had us cold, outnumbered and out weaponed." In this quote, emotive language is stressed by Graff with the words 'damn near wiped us out'. Also, 'us' is used as a metaphor supposedly representing humanity on this huge magnitude of 'wiping us out'. Also, nearly wiping out humanity once in the First Invasion foreshadows future events, which leads to huge fear. Progress is propelled by this fear of annihilation from the 'buggers' by developing technology in the 'Battle School' like the virtualized 'Battle room' game, 'the freezing guns' and 'simulated gravity'. This technology is set up by the 'Battle School' in preparation to defeat the 'buggers'.

Progress is also propelled by Ender's fear of losing his 'sense of humanity' to challenge himself to achieve more. "I am just like Peter. Take my monitor away, and I am just like Peter." In this quote, Ender had just attacked the bully, Stilson to protect himself in the future. This quote uses irony because Ender's fear of becoming like his sadistic brother, Peter only proves that by fearing Peter; he cannot become like Peter. Also, repetition of the phrase "I am just like Peter" enforces the idea that Ender is traumatized by the thought of becoming Peter. This fear of Ender losing his 'humanity' by becoming like Peter achieves progress by stripping Ender of all 'emotional bonds to Earth' to fully realize his potential as military commander.

Empathy and compassion are also the main cultural values represented in 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card. He shows that to empathise with the enemy can eliminate fear through understanding. Card shows to 'wear the face of the buggers' as humans, is essentially the same as 'wearing the face of humans' as the buggers. Essentially, this represents that both the 'buggers' and the 'humans' are both the enemy as they were both unable to 'understand' by showing empathy. Ender is such a successful commander in the text because he is able to show empathy towards his enemy and understand them.

Progress is also propelled by fear, as Ender's fear of failure and disappointment leads to more convincing victories and greater success. "He had defeated the Giant's drink part of the game. Ender brought up his figure up out of the Giant's eye. How did you get here? The bat asked. Nobody ever comes through here". In this quote, a rhetorical question is used by the bat to invoke greater meaning, because obviously Ender could not answer due to the violence he portrayed. In this quote, Ender had managed to defeat the 'Giant's Drink' part of the virtual game, which no-one at the 'Battle School' had done before. Ender's fear of failure leads him to play until he had defeated the giant. Ender's ability to beat the supposedly 'impossible' level of the game realizes his ability as a commander, as he is able to defy the rules to achieve victory. This kind of attitude that Ender develops through this fear enables him to be a better commander, as he is able to realize that war is not 'fair' and that sometimes you need to go to the extremes for victory. Also, Ender, as the hero of the novel, is only a young child so there is a subversion of the genre as a younger person is the hero and subsequently needs to develop these ideas of sacrifice.